The She Loves You edits laid bare

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Lord Reith
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The She Loves You edits laid bare

Post by Lord Reith »

While listening to the Heineken cassette "Only the Beatles" uploaded by Mr Beatleg I noticed that the mono tape of She Loves You was transferred from a stereo machine.

With the song being full of edits, these are mostly masked on a mono playback but stick out like a sore thumb in stereo!

Some of them most of us spotted already, but there were a few in the first half of the song I never knew were there. In all we have splices at:

0.12.2
0.37.5
1.02.4
1.15.6
1.22.8
1.31.0
2.03.0

or in pictures:

Image

That's seven splices in one two minute song! They really must have struggled to get a useable take of this one. Which is funny when you consider how many, many times they performed it after this perfect from start to finish.

Here is the song and a label track which you can import into Audacity alongside the audio by using "Import label track" Listen with headphones and "X" marks the spot.

https://tinyurl.com/Normans-nemesis
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Re: The She Loves You edits laid bare

Post by mojofilter »

Thanks for this! I remember when the Past Masters CDs came out, it was mentioned several times by different magazines that due to the increased resolution of CDs, you could now hear the edits in "She Loves You," where at each edit the tonality of the hi-hat wash changed.
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Re: The She Loves You edits laid bare

Post by CultTVman »

You have to give credit to George Martin for pushing the limits of the recording technology in 1963. The were working with 2 track analog recording and attempting primitive overdubs. I suspect the edits are similar to those we know were done on From Me To You. She Loves You is an amazing single.
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Re: The She Loves You edits laid bare

Post by Lord Reith »

mojofilter wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 5:09 am Thanks for this! I remember when the Past Masters CDs came out, it was mentioned several times by different magazines that due to the increased resolution of CDs, you could now hear the edits in "She Loves You," where at each edit the tonality of the hi-hat wash changed.
I have to say I never noticed any edits in She Loves You until Past Masters. I had the single and an EP and had enjoyed them for years without noticing anything wrong. When I first played PM and that big edit came up halfway through, I did a double-take. What the hell had they done to this brilliant song?

I swear that at some point in the 80s the cement splices had come apart during playback (probably when making the heineken cassette! :lol: ) and the whole tape had unspooled onto the floor in a giant mess. And just like Humpty Dumpty, although they put it back together it was never the same again. That's my quack theory anyway.
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Re: The She Loves You edits laid bare

Post by mojofilter »

Before it was obvious that the track was edited several times, we all thought they played an incredible take, like "I wish I'd been there to witness that performance." But you're right, it does seem odd that they didn't play it par excellence one time at EMI, but were able to flawlessly reproduce it later on tour and on the radio.
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Re: The She Loves You edits laid bare

Post by Lord Reith »

mojofilter wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 5:28 am Before it was obvious that the track was edited several times, we all thought they played an incredible take, like "I wish I'd been there to witness that performance." But you're right, it does seem odd that they didn't play it par excellence one time at EMI, but were able to flawlessly reproduce it later on tour and on the radio.
I guess they just didn't have time to rehearse it as much as they needed to. That may have been a good thing though. For although they later performed more technically perfect renditions, they never again got the same atmosphere. The closest I can think of they came was in The Mersey Sound. That performance always brings a smile to my face.
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Re: The She Loves You edits laid bare

Post by rtbcIII »

mojofilter wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 5:28 am Before it was obvious that the track was edited several times, we all thought they played an incredible take, like "I wish I'd been there to witness that performance." But you're right, it does seem odd that they didn't play it par excellence one time at EMI, but were able to flawlessly reproduce it later on tour and on the radio.
That record depends on a consistent high energy level that seems to have eluded them from take to take. And given other outtakes, you have to wonder what shape the song was even in when they began recording it. Seems like they used that final, edited version as the one to mimic/learn from for live shows. Worked out!
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Re: The She Loves You edits laid bare

Post by Patrick Healy »

I'm assuming none of the alternate takes exist any more?
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Re: The She Loves You edits laid bare

Post by rtbcIII »

Lord Reith wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 5:34 am
mojofilter wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 5:28 am Before it was obvious that the track was edited several times, we all thought they played an incredible take, like "I wish I'd been there to witness that performance." But you're right, it does seem odd that they didn't play it par excellence one time at EMI, but were able to flawlessly reproduce it later on tour and on the radio.
I guess they just didn't have time to rehearse it as much as they needed to. That may have been a good thing though.
Have always thought that was one of the secrets of their success - they barely had time to use the loo at EMI in those days, let alone second-guess themselves. Problems needed to be solved in minutes, not hours.
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Re: The She Loves You edits laid bare

Post by Tex »

MasterJedi did a remaster of this that masked the edits and tonal changes very well. Not 100% perfect but much better.

The best unfutzed transfer I've heard is on the CD version of the "Million Sellers" EP linked below. It jumps out of the speakers for sure.
hxxps://we.tl/t-h4FdAp2x2n

Maybe someone could use that as a basis for a new remaster that fixes the edits and tonal changes. I think everyone else is using the awful "Past Masters" transfers or vinyl transfers. But, I don't know if the above is a true mono transfer using a true mono tape head OR a mono tape transfer using a stereo head.
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